Chalongphob Sussangkarn noted that the U.S.–China trade war will have a positive effect on Korean companies because U.S. tariffs will help them in the competition with Chinese brands. However, this effect on Korean companies may not show up in Korean trade flows, as in the case where Samsung produces phones in Vietnam and ships the phones to the United States through the U.S.–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.
Siew Yean Tham argued that the recent multilateral agreements on trade facilitation demonstrated that the WTO still is capable of moving trade negotiations forward. However, because of the divergent interests of developing versus developed country members of the WTO, Tham asked whether it would make sense to implement two tracks for future negotiations. Jin Kyo Suh, the author, was skeptical about the viability of this approach.
Nur Ain Shahrier asked whether trade war effects on Korea would be affected by chaebol. Suh responded...